In an article over at Ars Technica it has been revealed that THQ is strongly in support of in-game advertisement. The company has announced a deal with Massive Inc. that will eventually result in dynamically updated in-game ads for players connected to the internet. It’s easy to see the issue of in-game advertisement in black and white, with the positive side being that game advertisment has a much brighter future than traditional TV advertising. As the 18-30 demographic continues to reduce the time they spend watching TV, games offer a new and more rewarding form of revenue for publishers.
On the negative side, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with in-game ads. From the press release, Kelly Flock, executive vice president of worldwide publishing at THQ states “when done properly [in-game ads] create added realism that can actually enhance game play”. We’d like to see an example of this, because more often than not, in-game ads detract from the experience. Whilst they’ll always have a place in sports games, the majority of games are not suited to having modern day advertisements plastered everywhere. The ultimate insult is that, as the article suggests, despite the extra cash flow there’ll likely be no decrease in the retail costs of games.
In summary: in-game ads are excellent for deepening publishers wallets, but distracting and ultimately annoying for gamers. Unfortunately for gamers, the endless march towards ads in games seems depressingly inevitable.
[Via digg]
